Amy&Dan
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2004
- Messages
- 15,958
We just returned yesterday from two weeks in California, much of which was spent at Disneyland. I don't feel up to a trip report and the length of the trip was so long its all sort of hazy! But I did want to post a few of my thoughts.
The parks were beautiful and clean as always. Its amazing how well they do with this given the number of people in there each day. We had nothing but one delightful cm after another. The lady that checked me in at the DLH was so nice I wanted to hug her. It just kept on from there. Guests were almost always nice too, didn't see much in the way of line cutting etc. Everone seemed to be just cheerful and happy to be there. We all missed the Golden vehicles on some of the rides and picture collages. But the castle looked beautiful and the YOAMD touches were very nice.
We started out at the Best Western Park Place Inn in a mini suite for two nights. Our room (#346) was very nice, extremely spacious and the only place in a total of five hotels over sixteen nights that had the sink outside the main bathroom which was very nice. It was spotless and the bathroom looked recently updated. All of the staff were very nice and helpful. In spite of all that, I doubt we'll stay there again, we preferred the Tropicana due to its nicer and larger pool area and we also didn't like that you couldn't take any of the free breakfast items out of the breakfast area. Typically dh goes down and gets the breakfast while I finish getting myself and the kids ready and we eat in the room. They don't let you do that at the BWPPI. Just a small thing but given the fact the Tropicana is right next door with the same basic, wonderful location we'll probably just stick with that. I would still highly recommend the BWPPI, just the two little things put a few more tally points over on the Tropicana side!
We spent the next nine nights at the DLH. We hadn't stayed there in two and half years and this was our sixth stay. I was a bit worried that after staying at the GCH last June, the DLH would seem old and not as good of a location. I couldn't have been more wrong. The staff was wonderful. So helpful and always right there when you needed them. My son broke a glass, I called housekeeping and within two minutes someone was there vacuming up the broken glass. My kids still prefer the main pool even at 10 and 12 and I LOVE the fact the DLH has the cove pools for a more quiet, removed experience. The main pool was crowded but we found seats every time. We swam each of our 9 days there, generally in both pools. They have wait staff circulating for food and drink orders now at the Neverland Pool which was nice. The grounds were lovely as always and the laundry room came in very handy. Its not large but it was never crowded, its tucked back by the quiet pool and I think most people don't even know its there! Our room was one of the smaller ones but it was still plenty big. It was right next to the elevator but we seldom heard the noise. Since our room had a long hallway we never heard hallway noise either. We had great mousekeepers and just loved it more than we even had the last time. We also loved our ninth floor location looking out over the Neverland Pool. So now that we have stayed at all three onsite hotels, the DLH is still our favorite and we'll just stick with it when we stay onsite. Also, I timed my walk from when I left the Sierra Tower to when I got to the DTD entrance of the GCH. It was five minutes. And given that our room at the GCH was down a long, long, long hallway, I am not sure how much time we saved staying there when we went to Disneyland. DCA was definitely more convenient from the GCH but not so much it would sway me. I did miss the balcony at the GCH and the turndown service. The DLH also prints out a sheet now with the events, schedules and EE information like what we received at the GCH last year. Although we didn't receive it every day at the DLH.
We went to Huntington Beach twice and it was wonderful. So close to Disneyland and just a great place to spend some time relaxing and playing in the sand. We even swam, the water was cold but you got used to it. I would highly recommend this beach to anyone wanting to venture away from Disneyland to go to the beach. We ate lunch at Rubys and our kids loved being right out over the water.
We did do Sea World one day (we spent three nights in San Diego before Anaheim) and that was a lot of fun. Not DL, but its not supposed to be. Do not stand in a long line for the Atlantis ride. It is so sorry compared to Disney rides, we stood in line for over an hour. Our kids were dying to ride it, we had tried first thing but it was down so by the time we could get it in after all the shows it was a long line. And not worth it. Sea World has great shows and the simulator ride similar to Star Tours was a lot of fun. The raft ride was okay, we got soaked beyond anything Grizzly River Run has ever dealt out! We did the Dine with Shamu for lunch and that was very nice, about the same price as a character meal at DL. The food wasn't as good but it was really fun to be that close to the whale and they did a little information type show which was nice.
In all, it was just a great trip. This was our longest trip to DL, we wanted to have lots of time to take it slow, good thing, my son was getting over a viral thing and was just wiped out the whole trip. We spent a lot of time at the pools at the DLH and only made it in at opening three of our 10 days. We didn't ride Nemo (ashamed to admit that but its true
) my son just couldn't do those long lines. We tried it at non EE opening twice and even with getting to the gates 45 minutes early our last day, by the time we got back there it was over two hours. I thought if we were going to wait that long we would just come back later and enjoy the rides in Frontierland and Adventureland which we did. But then we decided Nemo would still be there in January when we go back for a four day trip and maybe we would just wait! We are probably the only family in the history of the world who spent 10 days at DL (although we had three non park days) who didn't manage to ride Nemo! Suffice to say, fastpass and off season trips have spoiled us for long, hot lines! We loved the Pirates Lair and think thats a great addition/update to DL.
Crowds were bad but in some ways not as bad as last June when they had part of the park closed off for the POTCH premier. I felt like lines for the Matterhorn were worse than usual, clearly a lot of Nemo waiters split up and ride that. Ride the Fantasyland side, its not nearly as crowded. One day we waited less than 20 minutes at 3:00 p.m. for that side and a lady I chatted with during the parade that night said they waited 45 on the other side around that same time. I like that side better, but not 25 minutes in line better!
Its nice to be home and its nice to know we'll be back in seven months. It made saying goodbye so much easier!
The parks were beautiful and clean as always. Its amazing how well they do with this given the number of people in there each day. We had nothing but one delightful cm after another. The lady that checked me in at the DLH was so nice I wanted to hug her. It just kept on from there. Guests were almost always nice too, didn't see much in the way of line cutting etc. Everone seemed to be just cheerful and happy to be there. We all missed the Golden vehicles on some of the rides and picture collages. But the castle looked beautiful and the YOAMD touches were very nice.
We started out at the Best Western Park Place Inn in a mini suite for two nights. Our room (#346) was very nice, extremely spacious and the only place in a total of five hotels over sixteen nights that had the sink outside the main bathroom which was very nice. It was spotless and the bathroom looked recently updated. All of the staff were very nice and helpful. In spite of all that, I doubt we'll stay there again, we preferred the Tropicana due to its nicer and larger pool area and we also didn't like that you couldn't take any of the free breakfast items out of the breakfast area. Typically dh goes down and gets the breakfast while I finish getting myself and the kids ready and we eat in the room. They don't let you do that at the BWPPI. Just a small thing but given the fact the Tropicana is right next door with the same basic, wonderful location we'll probably just stick with that. I would still highly recommend the BWPPI, just the two little things put a few more tally points over on the Tropicana side!
We spent the next nine nights at the DLH. We hadn't stayed there in two and half years and this was our sixth stay. I was a bit worried that after staying at the GCH last June, the DLH would seem old and not as good of a location. I couldn't have been more wrong. The staff was wonderful. So helpful and always right there when you needed them. My son broke a glass, I called housekeeping and within two minutes someone was there vacuming up the broken glass. My kids still prefer the main pool even at 10 and 12 and I LOVE the fact the DLH has the cove pools for a more quiet, removed experience. The main pool was crowded but we found seats every time. We swam each of our 9 days there, generally in both pools. They have wait staff circulating for food and drink orders now at the Neverland Pool which was nice. The grounds were lovely as always and the laundry room came in very handy. Its not large but it was never crowded, its tucked back by the quiet pool and I think most people don't even know its there! Our room was one of the smaller ones but it was still plenty big. It was right next to the elevator but we seldom heard the noise. Since our room had a long hallway we never heard hallway noise either. We had great mousekeepers and just loved it more than we even had the last time. We also loved our ninth floor location looking out over the Neverland Pool. So now that we have stayed at all three onsite hotels, the DLH is still our favorite and we'll just stick with it when we stay onsite. Also, I timed my walk from when I left the Sierra Tower to when I got to the DTD entrance of the GCH. It was five minutes. And given that our room at the GCH was down a long, long, long hallway, I am not sure how much time we saved staying there when we went to Disneyland. DCA was definitely more convenient from the GCH but not so much it would sway me. I did miss the balcony at the GCH and the turndown service. The DLH also prints out a sheet now with the events, schedules and EE information like what we received at the GCH last year. Although we didn't receive it every day at the DLH.
We went to Huntington Beach twice and it was wonderful. So close to Disneyland and just a great place to spend some time relaxing and playing in the sand. We even swam, the water was cold but you got used to it. I would highly recommend this beach to anyone wanting to venture away from Disneyland to go to the beach. We ate lunch at Rubys and our kids loved being right out over the water.
We did do Sea World one day (we spent three nights in San Diego before Anaheim) and that was a lot of fun. Not DL, but its not supposed to be. Do not stand in a long line for the Atlantis ride. It is so sorry compared to Disney rides, we stood in line for over an hour. Our kids were dying to ride it, we had tried first thing but it was down so by the time we could get it in after all the shows it was a long line. And not worth it. Sea World has great shows and the simulator ride similar to Star Tours was a lot of fun. The raft ride was okay, we got soaked beyond anything Grizzly River Run has ever dealt out! We did the Dine with Shamu for lunch and that was very nice, about the same price as a character meal at DL. The food wasn't as good but it was really fun to be that close to the whale and they did a little information type show which was nice.
In all, it was just a great trip. This was our longest trip to DL, we wanted to have lots of time to take it slow, good thing, my son was getting over a viral thing and was just wiped out the whole trip. We spent a lot of time at the pools at the DLH and only made it in at opening three of our 10 days. We didn't ride Nemo (ashamed to admit that but its true
) my son just couldn't do those long lines. We tried it at non EE opening twice and even with getting to the gates 45 minutes early our last day, by the time we got back there it was over two hours. I thought if we were going to wait that long we would just come back later and enjoy the rides in Frontierland and Adventureland which we did. But then we decided Nemo would still be there in January when we go back for a four day trip and maybe we would just wait! We are probably the only family in the history of the world who spent 10 days at DL (although we had three non park days) who didn't manage to ride Nemo! Suffice to say, fastpass and off season trips have spoiled us for long, hot lines! We loved the Pirates Lair and think thats a great addition/update to DL. Crowds were bad but in some ways not as bad as last June when they had part of the park closed off for the POTCH premier. I felt like lines for the Matterhorn were worse than usual, clearly a lot of Nemo waiters split up and ride that. Ride the Fantasyland side, its not nearly as crowded. One day we waited less than 20 minutes at 3:00 p.m. for that side and a lady I chatted with during the parade that night said they waited 45 on the other side around that same time. I like that side better, but not 25 minutes in line better!
Its nice to be home and its nice to know we'll be back in seven months. It made saying goodbye so much easier!
